so many choices so little idea

02-13-2013, 01:45 AM

One board to cover every sunshine coast wave style from waist high to 5 ft, p-nator, dom, spitfire, alternator, what would it be if you had to drop some cash on a new stick? BTW Have sp for 0-waist high, 6'2 98kg's, beginer to intermediate am used to riding quads now and have a small selection of future quads. At my height weight 6'2,6'4,6'6 are the obvious options, any direction would be appreciated.

I reckon the Hellfire, Unibrow and Jacknife are the likeliest choices. At 98kg I'd be thinking 6'8" in a Unibrow and probably the same in a Hellfire. I'm not familiar with Jscknife sizing but around 6'8" would be around right.

An Alternator is a perfect all round board but is quite a step up from a SP. I reckon 6'10" would be the right length for that board. I absolutely live my Altrrnator. It's on my list of all time favourite boards. I'd steer you though to the more hybrid boards listed above in preference, although an Alt will work and its small degrees of difference.

That's actually a complex ask.
Reason being that the coast has a broad spectrum of waves from the beachbreaks to the points.
It also depends upon which points you'll be riding the board at most so that you'll have to make provision for the wave shape and crowd factor.
My quiver is focused on Alex/M'dore point/beachbreak and then Noosa if I have no choice with a fey wind for Alex.
So need boards that catch waves easily but will plane across the dead sections well and don't need to be too refined.
My low end (wave height) boards are all about that.
If you were surfing the beachbeaks at the Southern or Northern ends of the coast all the time then you'd be looking at the performance hybrids with more nose and tail rockers and more refined rails to handle the hollower, more powerful waves.
You ride the spud in 3-5' waves there and you're going to get you're arse handed to you when its firing.
The spud's just not built for hollow barrels.
You need to decide what you want the one board to perform best in for the wave size range you've given as well.
You've already got the potato which covers the bottom end of the wave size and fuller waves.
If you're looking for something else that tells me you want a new board that handles the upper range of the wave size better.
Look at the Morning of the Earth era and the 70's pin tail mini guns were all about having the good wave board and then riding it in absolutely everything.
Nowadays I see all the 6'1" hpsb crew struggling to catch and ride waves at Alex which is a hybrid/fish/mal wave.
So if you go for the Hellfire, Unibrow, Jacknife, alternator style board you'll struggle in the small stuff.
If you get the volume close to your potato then you'll have to be ready for compromise in the small stuff and realise it will not turn in swooping, eye watering speed runs like the spud. It'll feel stiff in comparison and won't plane across the dead sections too well so you'll have to stay in the pocket to tap into any power the smaller waves have.
If you haven't ridden any other board but the spud for a while you may have forgotten just how well that little slab planes compared to more "normal" boards and how forgiving it can be.
So I reckon....keep the spud for 0-3' fat, high tide beachies and points and buy a hellfire, jacknife or Unibrow (whatever feels right under the arm) for the better, hollower, low tide 3-5' wave days.
Best thing you can do is hop in your car and drive down to Currumbin and grab a demo or two.
Questions will be answered by yourself not us.

Hey cuttle, yes the demo idea is good but questions get answered here everyday, most of the time I have been riding moffs, noosa in 2'-5, ' most of the beatings have come from having to take off deeper to keep the wave count up, now I would never call moffs a hollow wave , and I can't remember the last time out of all the last good swells, that noosa was lining up properly. The issue with the spud for me is riding a much shorter board then i was used to in these conditions, I am finding my wave count is dropping, competing with the endless supply of mal guys, so I'm am taking off deeper(more Hpsb) type area on the wave to make sure I'm accounting for my fair share of waves, trouble is the sp with its flat rocker does not always like a later/steep drop in these type waves. Once up and riding the sp goes very well with almost to much speed at times, just have to stick the drop and its all good.

Going back to the future riding similar waves on a less volumed 6'6 fish type shape the wave count was higher (able to paddle in earlier)and the later drops handled better if needed, so I need to put the sp away for when it ankle biter size and get me a board that better suits me in 2'-5' days.

So thats leads me to the first post, looking at a more traditional shape in 6'2-6'6 range, to get the stoke back. Pn, dm,sf,activator, jk, unibrow, maby advance , now I know the potatonator is anything but traditional but a fellow member has 6'6 pn for sale currently, problem is it seems like so much foam at those dimensions, any thoughts on how the size jump from 5'8 to 6'6 and volume jump from 43-49 litres would translate in a potatonator in the conditions listed above, or would it be simply to much board.

It would be the perfect foil to a SP and cover every wave scenario the Sunny cost can serve up except for the really big days when you and me can sit on the beach drinking coffee and I can tell you how good I used to be.

Stc , you are probably right, just never looked at them becuase they are only in rapid fire, and ive been quite heavy on pu boards in the past, really like the durability of my fst sp, does advance come in white rapid fire? how do think the 6'6 advance would compare with your 6'6 pn? Ever ridden the 6'6 advance

Suncoast

Comment

Hi Suncoast, not ridden the 6'6 Addvance yet but will get one soon. I would expect the 6'6 Addvance to have much more control in bigger or punchier waves than the PN without sacrificing and paddle. I think it would complement your SP well for the waves on the Sunny Coast.

Not sure if the Addvance comes in white rapid fire but I have had mine for a year, it has been my go to board including an OS trip and blown across a carpark on a really windy day. It has a couple of scratches on it and some slight back foot marks. FST may be tougher but I am very happy with the durability of Rapidfire. The bamboo deck also looks good with a red rip curl sticker on it :)

Ok STC...the 6'6" Addvance is good.
Loved mine.
Only downfall was when trying to connect outside banks with inside banks and not quite enough glide.
It went great in 3-5'.
Doesn't grovel anywhere nearly as well as the potatonator.
The potatonator has the wide tail, deep double planing area under the back foot.
The Addvance has the action forward (fish like) so stepping back on the tail it has great bite but isn't as forgiving off the tail on weaker waves.
There both great rides but ones fish like and one is shortboard like.
Haven't picked up my 6'4" from Beachbeat yet. FST/FCS equipped.
Go and have a look at it over the weekend.
I'll pick it up on Monday....if it's still there.

If I was going to ride smaller waves I'd go for the 6'10" in Addvance to get me the paddle power of 56 litres.
The 48 litre Addvance had me up to bellybutton-bottom ribs with board level in the water.
I wasn't floating high and dry by any stretch of the imagination.
Remember Nev used the 6'6" as his longboard greed control device but he's only a lightweight.

Howzit. I have the 6'6 SF, its okay on the smaller stuff, but still big. anything 3'+ is when it works. i dont know about the PN, but the other 3 wud b good, but if the waves r solid overhead, the SF and the ALT wud catch as easy as any board.